How to run your business as if you were going to sell it tomorrow

This blog is a sequel to my earlier blog – Run your business as if you were going to sell it tomorrow

The more a business can run without needing you, the owner or CEO, there all the time, the more valuable it is to potential buyers. To make this stage, keep these suggestions in mind:

Evaluate your current operations. Where are you losing money along the way? Why?

How dependent are the company’s sales on your day-to-day presence? Why?

Can you take a week or a month off without the business falling apart? Specifically, can you take time off and have the business actually move forward? (If you answered no, you’re probably too operationally and tactically focussed, and not fulfilling the strategic role of a CEO.)

If you find significant deficiencies, look next to how you delegate. Whose job within the organization are you presently doing, in addition to your own? Either you have the wrong people in place or you’re not making the best use of the talent working for you. When a business depends entirely on the CEO/owner for its day-to-day operations, success or long-range health, it is probably placing a huge burden on the owner and is most likely not functioning optimally. Growth is restricted. The business is no longer moving forward, and the owner is probably pedaling hard uphill but not making any headway.

It’s usually difficult for an intelligent, ambitious entrepreneur to successfully transition to becoming an effective manager. The relative freedom and lack of structure that gets things off the ground sooner or later must transition to established systems and processes as well as other people to get to the next stage – the same components, by the way, that lead toward a successful eventual exit.